The present invention relates to gaming machines or consoles of the type generally referred to as slot machines, and in particular the invention provides a new type of game played on such a machine.
Players who regularly play gaming machines quickly tire of particular games and therefore it is necessary for manufacturers of these machines to come up with innovative games or game features that add interest to the games provided on such machines in order to keep the players amused and therefore willing to continue playing the game.
Gaming or poker machines have been well known in a number of countries for many years and have more recently gained increased popularity in those jurisdictions in which they were already known as well as becoming more widely accepted in new jurisdictions. As a result quite substantial amounts of money wagered on these machines world wide. There is a growing tendency for governments of various States to legalise the use of gaming machines by licensing operators, with resulting revenue gains through license fees and taxation of monies invested. The licensed operation of gaming machines is generally the subject of legislation and regulation within any respective State. This regulation almost always dictates a minimum percentage payout for a gaming machine. For example, a minimum of 85% of monies invested must be returned as winnings, and manufacturers of gaming machines therefore must design their machines around these regulatory controls.
With the growth that has occurred in the gaming machine market there is intense competition between manufacturers to supply the various existing and new venues. When selecting a supplier of gaming machines, the operator of a venue will often pay close attention to the popularity of various games with their patrons.
Therefore, gaming machine manufacturers are keen to devise games which are popular with players, as a mechanism for improving sales.
In particular, manufacturers regularly devise new games which have not previously been seen on slot machines in order to stimulate renewal of player interest.
Pachinko is a game popular in Japan in which an 11 mm diameter steel ball is fired into a labyrinth of pins or nails projecting from a back panel and awards are gained if the balls can be caused to come to rest in certain locations. Typically, when a ball is caused to come to rest in a designated prize winning position, the player is rewarded with additional balls, the number of balls awarded to the player being dependant on the particular location that the ball is brought to rest. The player purchases balls from the operator before commencing play, or when he runs out and after stopping play, a player may exchange balls for non-monetary prizes.
In this specification the term Gaming console will be used to refer to a gaming machine of the type having a video display screen on which a game is displayed with player inputs being either by physical buttons joysticks etc or by pseudo buttons, etc, provided as touch sensitive areas on the display, or a mixture of each. Typical games that have previously been provided on such consoles include video simulations of spinning reels or video card games among others.